In this image shot by Souza and released by the White House, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, right, President Barack Obama, second from left, Vice President Joe Biden, left, watch an update of the mission against Osama bin Laden.

President Barack Obama hands his umbrella to White House photographer Pete Souza after arriving at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport in Charlotte, N.C., before traveling to Mooresville, N.C., to promote his "Middle Class Jobs and Opportunity Tour." Souza has been selected as The Topeka Capital-Journal's Kansan of the Year.

In this photo provided by the White House, President Ronald Reagan and President-elect George Bush arrive at the Capitol in Washington after a limousine ride from the White House for Bush's inaugural ceremonies.

White House photographer Pete Souza walks down the stairs from Air Force One before the arrival of President Barack Obama at Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland.

PETE SOUZA

Hometown: South Dartmouth, Mass.

Education: Graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in public communication from Boston University; master’s degree in journalism and mass communication at Kansas State University

Current job: Director of the White House photo office and chief official White House photographer for President Barack Obama

Prior employment: Official White House photographer for President Ronald Reagan; freelancer for National Geographic and Life magazines; national photographer for The Chicago Tribune; assistant professor at Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication; photographer at The Hutchinson News and The Chanute Tribune, both in Kansas

Honors: Several Pictures of the Year, National Press Photographers Association’s Best of Photojournalism and White House News Photographers Association awards

Books: “Unguarded Moments: Behind-the-Scenes Photographs of President Reagan” (1992); “Plebe Summer at the U.S. Naval Academy” (2003); “Images of Greatness: An Intimate Look at the Presidency of Ronald Reagan” (2004); “The Rise of Barack Obama” (2008)

Taylor was a 17-year-old student at Nickerson High School who had been bitten by the photography bug and was taken in by the images shot by Souza for The Hutchinson News during the 1970s.

“I drove to The Hutchinson News and sat in my car and waited for Pete to drive up,” Taylor said. “I saw a guy walking up and carrying cameras. I jumped out of my car and said: ‘I love your photographs. Can you teach me?’ ”

Souza looked the teenager over and then invited him to come inside the newspaper office and watch him work in its darkroom. Within a short time, Taylor was shadowing Souza and learning how to improve his photography skills.

“I rode with him to events,” Taylor said, recalling how he tagged along to baseball games and other assignments. “I did that for several months.”

Taylor eventually would become a photojournalist, working for The Topeka Capital-Journal in the 1990s and being published in Sports Illustrated, the New York Times and USA Today before founding PT’s Coffee Roasting Co. in 1993.

To this day, he continues to follow the career of Souza, his one-time mentor who has gone on to document the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama, work as a freelancer for National Geographic and Life magazines and take home numerous photojournalism awards.

“I’ve always admired and been inspired by Pete,” he said. “He’s a unique talent.”

Road to Washington

Souza, director of the White House photo office and chief official White House photographer for Obama and an assistant professor on leave from Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication, grew up in South Dartmouth, Mass.

He graduated cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in public communication from Boston University and then traveled west to Kansas to earn a master’s degree in journalism and mass communication at Kansas State University, according to his White House blog. He later worked for The Chanute Tribune and The Hutchinson News.

Souza was shooting images for The Chicago Sun-Times in the early 1980s, when he was tapped to be the official White House photographer for Reagan’s second term from 1983 to 1989. He subsequently published two books of photos from the Reagan presidency: “Unguarded Moments: Behind-the-Scenes Photographs of President Reagan” (1992) and “Images of Greatness: An Intimate Look at the Presidency of Ronald Reagan” (2004).

It was during his time as Reagan’s official photographer that he returned to K-State to join Taylor and Tim Janicke, then Kansas City Times picture editor, in spearheading a project to document life on the campus during one week in October 1986. The project resulted in a book, “A Week at Kansas State,” featuring photos by K-State alumni and student photographers.

Souza, whose “A Week at Kansas State” assignments were to take photos of KSU president Jon Wefald and a Wildcat football game, was delayed in getting to Manhattan for the project because he was covering the summit between Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev at Reykavik, Iceland.

“He flew directly from Iceland to K-State and brought the pictures (he shot in Iceland) to show us,” Taylor said.

Andy Nelson, former Topeka resident and currently head of the journalism and digital media sequence at K-State, was a freshman photographer participating in the project.

“I got to spend time (with Pete) and got to know him quite well,” he said.

From 1997 to 2008, Nelson was the Washington-based staff photographer for The Christian Science Monitor, and he and Souza often covered the same news events, including the impeachment hearings of President Bill Clinton and the presidential campaigns of 2001 and 2004. They also conducted photography workshops together.

Nelson said Souza was straightforward in interacting with others and demanded excellence, no matter what experience an individual had.

“Because he had high standards, he pushed people to want to do well,” he said.

Tapped by Obama

When his duties with Reagan were over, Souza remained working in the nation’s capital and was hired by The Chicago Tribune to work in its Washington bureau from 1998-2007. He and other members of a Chicago Tribune team won a Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting in 2001.

According to his blog, Souza began documenting Obama’s political career for The Chicago Tribune after he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004 and accompanied the senator to seven countries, including Kenya, South Africa and Russia. He also documented Obama’s successful presidential campaign.

A collection of those photographs are featured in Souza’s book, “The Rise of Barack Obama,” published in July 2008. The book was on the New York Times best-seller list for five weeks.

Souza was working as an assistant professor of photojournalism at Ohio University when he was asked to return to Washington in 2009 to be Obama’s chief official photographer and director of the White House photo office.

Souza’s career hasn’t always focused on U.S. politics. After 9-11, he crossed the Hindu Kush mountains on horseback in three feet of snow to cover the fall of Kabul, Afghanistan, according to his blog. As a freelancer, his images have been published in National Geographic, Life, Fortune, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report.

He has won numerous photojournalism competitions, including Pictures of the Year, National Press Photographers Association’s Best of Photojournalism and White House News Photographers Association awards.

Souza’s photos have been exhibited at the Smithsonian Museum of American History, Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Newseum, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture at the New York Public Library and Kansas State University.

“In terms of photojournalism and documenting history, he’ll be remembered as one of the most influential people to document the presidency,” Nelson said. “He always brings a level of understanding to the story that is on par with the greats of photojournalism.”

In the limelight

Souza isn’t afraid of the other side of the lens either. In November 2011, The New Republic included Souza on its list of Washington’s most-powerful, least-famous people in Washington.

He has appeared on “20/20,” “Nightline,” “Good Morning America,” “CNN Special Reports,” “Fox Friends and Family” and National Public Radio, according to his blog. National Geographic documented his life as chief official White House photographer for “The President’s Photographer,” a 2010 film produced by PBS Television that also included previous presidential photographers.

Souza, who was married in October in the Rose Garden with the president in attendance, recently returned to the media spotlight when news photographers assigned to the White House questioned his exclusive access to Obama and the rapid distribution of his photos to news media via Facebook, Flickr and Instagram.

In an interview with the New York Times published Nov. 30, Souza said he believes news photographers have better access to Obama than they did with Reagan, but he understands their point.

“It’s legitimate for them to push for more access, and in some cases I think their arguments are valid, and in some instances I think their arguments aren’t valid,” he said in the interview.

J. David Ake, the assistant bureau chief for photos for The Associated Press, said Souza’s photos become “the only historical document of events” when news photographers don’t have access. According to the article, all of Souza’s photos, published and unpublished, are filed in the National Archives.

“He trusts me,” Souza said of Obama. “I’m there when everything is happening, and I think for history’s sake, that’s a good thing.”

Reagan and his family also trusted Souza. When Reagan died in June 2004, Souza was asked to be the official photographer for his funeral.

“What’s mind-blowing is the life he’s lived. It’s amazing what’s he’s seen,” Taylor said of Souza. “Pete has a gift of being in the right place at the right time and being prepared to get the right picture. You can’t quantify that. You either have it or you don’t.”

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Pete Souza is a tremendous representative of K-State and the Hutchinson News and the Chanute Tribune. He documented life in those communities with the same honesty and compassion that he has shown throughout his entire career.